Tampa police track down fugitive pig

Associated Press

Published Friday, April 09, 2004

TAMPA (AP) -- It took one helicopter, four squad cars and two search dogs, but authorities have finally caught up with a suspect who has eluded them for a month -- a pig which has been tearing up lawns in an upscale neighborhood.

In recent weeks the critter has been chased by men with lassos, tailed by police cruisers and tracked by two animal rights advocates carrying a net. One resident has set a trap for the pig regularly, baiting it with corn, only to have the pig slip in, eat the bait and scamper off.

But Wednesday night he met his match, to the relief of the South Tampa's Sunset Park neighborhood where the pig has been plowing through flower beds, shrubbery and sod and wrecking the landscape.

Marlin Anderson, who had his yard torn up by the pig, walked outside shortly after 10:30 p.m. to the sound of a helicopter circling above his house.

"All of a sudden, I hear barking dogs, and I think, 'What is this?' and here is this pig running down the street cutting across my yard and into the swamp," Anderson said. "He was heading for home chased by these dogs."

Following closely behind were two trappers who ran into the mangrove swamp behind the dogs. Then three police cars pulled up and a fourth one behind them blocked an intersection, he said. Anderson said he was told they had chased the pig from a mile away. Lt. Sal Ruggiero said initial reports were that the captured pig was in the possession of a trapper, but he didn't know where it was being taken. He said the credit for the capture belonged to Officer Buddy Gray.

"He tracked this pig all night long," Ruggiero said. "He tracked it down, and they confronted it and took it into custody."